Mr B's List of SMART Board Sites - List of SMART Board sites, lesson resources and other educational resources online

Here’s a new fun reading site for the little kiddos. Animated read-aloud story books and songs!! its a subscription based site, but I believe it is free

click here: www.mightybook.com

from their site:

MightyBook is an online publisher that specializes in children’s illustrated, animated read-aloud eBooks and Story Songs for ages 2 to 10, plus children’s sing-along songs. All eBooks have an original sound track, many with music and sound effects, and are created in Macromedia Flash animation. Words in the stories highlight as they are spoken by the story teller. It is truly entertainment that helps kids read.

Cool fun new site for the little kiddos, and English language learners. FUN, check it out!

click here: www.kindersite.org

Their mission as specified on their website:

To build a resource that can be used by teachers and adults for enhancing and motivating young children, from the age of 2 years, to:

1. Build their first technology skillset, by finding and using appropriate content on the Internet, in the form of games, stories and songs, within a safe and engaging environment.

2. To enhance the learning of English, as a first or second language, with a huge range of motivational games and tools. The content will be appropriate for young to older learners.

3. To offer academic educational researchers a tool that can measure and correlate data on children’s use of content on the site, according to their research criteria. The project will incorporate a mechanism whereby the research can be followed-up offline.

check out www.storyplace.org — “the children’s digital library” try some of their original stories and online activities.

Children and their parents have for years enjoyed attending storytimes, checking out books and participating in a number of other educational, entertaining and participatory programs at the various locations of The Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County. StoryPlace, an interactive web site, came about to provide children with the virtual experience of going to the library and participating in the same types of activities the library offers.

From magickeys.com, these are animated / illustrated new children’s storybooks online. Very cool for Prek/K classes and libraries. All are illustrated, many are interactive, very interesting stuff here from up-and-coming authors if I’m not mistaken. Let Mr. B know what you think!

http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/index.php <-- here is a new Math site for the mathletes. These available here for teachers K-12, some neat practical math application / real world stuff as well.

I will point out that the site is available in spanish and french also, in case some of our Language teachers benefit from a site that can operate in multiple languages.

Click here: http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/index.php

Some darn good stuff here from a primary school in UK. Interactive reading activities, many made by children at this school. A cool find! CLICK HERE: www.amplesideprimary.com

Funbrain Reading

Funbrain is simply one of the best, I know many of you know that– have you explored the Funbrain Reading resources?

WOW check this out! International Children’s Digital Library is an online collection of 1000′s of children’s book from all over the world, in all different languages. What a powerful resource!!

To go to the International Children’s Digital Library, –CLICK HERE–

In their words, “The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children’s literature from around the world.” Tpo cool!

This website, AdLit.Org, is focused on helping struggling adolescent readers. Some awesome resources, including Professional Development webinars you might consider for your school.

To get to AdLit.org, CLICK HERE,

“AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers. AdLit.org is an educational initiative of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation’s capital, and is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and by the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation.”

There are some noteworthy facts in the AdLit.org mission statement, check this out:

“According to data from the U.S. Department of Education’s 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress known as NAEP, or “the Nation’s Report Card”, fewer than a third of 8th graders read and write at a proficient level (that is, at a level deemed to be appropriate for their year in school). And for low-income students and students of color, the statistics are even more alarming: just 13% of African-American, 17% of Hispanic, and 15% of low-income 8th graders were found to be proficient in reading.

Over the last few years, hundreds of school districts have introduced new programs designed to help struggling adolescent readers. Numerous professional associations and other national organizations have moved adolescent literacy to the top of the school reform agenda. Many of the nation’s top education researchers have launched new studies into topics such as how best to teach reading in the academic content areas, how best to teach writing at the high-school level, and how best to support the literacy development of adolescent English language learners. AdLit.org’s mission is to distill this literacy research and share best-practice information to as many people as possible through the power and reach of the Internet.”

If you’re teaching Romeo and Juliet soon, check out Interactive Folio! Click here: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/folio/folio.html

Interactive Folio is a media-rich, online interactive edition of Romeo and Juliet. Lots of nuggets, check it out!

CLICK HERE: FreeTech4Teachers.com

I like this guy’s blog and follow him; this is a good post! Some good plagiarism detection / prevention web resources

ZiggetyZoom.com is a website for Pre-K and early school age kids, and it is designed from the ground up for kid-friendly navigation. Among other games / coloring and similar activities, they have a collection of interactive online storybooks that you can find here: www.Ziggetyzoom.com/stories

“Have fun reading our online interactive stories, which are perfect to read to your child or for your preschool or school age child to read with you or alone. We have stories about a Princess, a Pirate, Curious Baby, BunBun, Beakley, and Educational books. You and your child can listen to the stories with audio or you can turn the audio off and read the story to your child or have them read it to you.”

Cool new site? FREE! CLICK HERE –> Storylineonline.net to explore. Right now the site is pretty simple. Its a program of the Screen Actors Guild foundation; famous actors reading children’s books aloud!

www.wiredforbooks.org Celebrating Books, Reading, and Literature. One of the best! From Ohio University, if you are an English teacher, you *must* check this out!

www.starfall.com is another one of the best elementary reading and writing websites out there.  As good as it gets:

Teachers around the world use Starfall.com and Starfall high-quality educational products as an inexpensive way to make the classroom more fun and inspire a love of reading and writing. Parents use Starfall to prepare their children for school, and to support them once they are there. Starfall is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children.

Primarily designed for first grade, Starfall is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade. Starfall is perfect for home schooling. Be sure to visit The Starfall Store for low-cost writing journals and books that parallel this website.

www.literactive.com is one of the best online reading sites I’ve seen.  too cool, check it:

Literactive is the leading provider of reading material for pre-school, kindergarten and grade 1 students available online. The program is comprised of carefully levelled guided readers, comprehensive phonic activities and a wealth of supplemental reading material which gradually develop a child’s reading skills in a sequential and enjoyable manner. Developed and approved by teachers and parents across the United States, Literactive is the acknowledged leader in early learning online. All the material is available for free from this site but you need to register.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Games/mag/spelling.html

This one is too cool– amatuer, but, check out how effective it is on your SMART Board to give early spellers the opportunity to move letters around like on a refrigerator. COOL, says Mr. B

While Dositey.com offers a number of educational products for sale, they also have some useful free resources that can work on SMART Boards, etc. CLICK HERE to go directly to free grade 3/4 Language Arts games or also you can directly to www.dositey.com to explore more of what they offer.

Dositey.com describes their mission is “to provide high quality, easily accessible and affordable online educational content to schools and families.” and particularly for teachers, they hope to “enhance and maximize your ability to to teach, visualize, reinforce and practice any topic your students need to master AND to promote parent-teacher cooperation by making our products easily available and affordable both to schools and homes.”

I think this is the most noteable about Dositey.com: teachers and schools can invest in curriculum from Dositey, and parents can do the same at home so that there is consistency at home and school.

While Dositey.com offers a number of educational products for sale, they also have some useful free resources that can work on SMART Boards, etc. CLICK HERE to go directly to free K-2 Language Arts games or also you can directly to www.dositey.com to explore more of what they offer.

Dositey.com describes their mission is “to provide high quality, easily accessible and affordable online educational content to schools and families.” and particularly for teachers, they hope to “enhance and maximize your ability to to teach, visualize, reinforce and practice any topic your students need to master AND to promote parent-teacher cooperation by making our products easily available and affordable both to schools and homes.”

I think this is the most noteable about Dositey.com: teachers and schools can invest in curriculum from Dositey, and parents can do the same at home so that there is consistency at home and school.

WiredForBooks.org is a must for any english teacher. Their “Kids Corner” includes children’s ebooks in a variety of formats– web based, powerpoints, etc. VERY COOL. WiredForBooks.org continues to win awards and recommendations as one of the BEST OF THE WEB.